Sewing Arts Center

Bios

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  Betty Anderson

  Like many of the girls and boys that take classes at Sewing Arts, I began sewing as a young child. My mother let me “play” with fabric…create clothes for my dolls. She taught me to embroider before I began to use her sewing machine. The first machine that I used was a Singer Featherweight. In the time when girls only wore skirts or dresses to school my mother taught me how to make pleated skirts. I then moved on to making net petticoats…a necessity in the ‘50’s! I would often make shirts, skirts, petticoats for my family for Christmas presents. With the help of my mother, my sewing skills increased. I made bridesmaids dresses for several friends’ weddings…then made my own wedding dress (as well as all the bridesmaids’ dresses). Through the years I had many chances to sew…with 5 daughters! Proms dresses, wedding dresses, quilts and clothes for my daughters helped wear out my first sewing machine. When I went back to teaching school full time, I proposed that we begin a sewing class to help our students apply their reading and math skills that were being remediated. The classes became a success as the students were able to take pride in things that they had made. During the 22 years of working with students at school I took the things that my mother had taught me and passed them and a love for sewing on to the students. In this eighth year of teaching children to sew at Sewing Arts Center, I look forward to passing on a love of sewing that was given to me by my mother (who is still sewing at 91 years old!) to the children come to our classes.

  Link: Betty Anderson

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  Jemi Armstrong

  Jemi Armstrong is a Los Angeles-based fashion illustrator, author and professor. Her book credits include co-author and illustrator Pencil to Pen Tool: Creating And Understanding The Digital fashion Image; Fashion Design Drawing Course; and I Sketch Therefore I Am. She holds a master’s degree in science and three undergraduate degrees in fashion and art. And, she'd never say this, but she's amazing! Not only is she an exceptional artist, she is a brilliant teacher, teasing out of her students absolutely remarkable work of which even her students didn't think possible.

  Link: Jemi Armstrong

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  Wynn Armstrong

  As a professor and author, Wynn teaches various digital media classes for fashion and computer design at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Academy of Couture Arts and several other colleges and Universities. He has developed curriculum for Digital Portfolio Development, Virtual Store Design, and bridged the Photoshop/Illustrator gap between graphics and fashion industry users. Wynn is co-author of the book “From Pencil to Pen Tool: Understanding and Creating the Digital Fashion Image” for Fairchild Publications (2006) which is currently being used by The Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.) and other leading university’s. His freelance clients include Snapfashun, Malibu Gourmet Sea Foods, Tightlines Active Wear, and Chin Chin restaurant chain. Wynn's work was showcased in the Bit-by-Bit Digital Art Gallery, and was named a “Digital Master” by Visual Arts Trends e-zine in December of 2003.

  Link: Wynn Armstrong

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  Susanne Cole

  Growing up in Demmark I was surrounded by sewing and embroidery. I made my first quilt in 1975, and developed a love of quilting, a passion for embroidery and sewing by machine as well as by hand. My husband bought me a machine at Sewing Arts Center years ago, and Sewing Arts has been my second home since. I thrill to teach classes, both beginning and advanced. It brings me great joy to share my passion for sewing and to see enthusiasm for the craft build in my students.

  Link: Susanne Cole

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  Russell Scott Conte

  Russell Conte, proprietor of Sewing Arts Centers, Inc., is nationally renown throughout the sewing community for his business and sewing acumen, is recognized for having developed one of the most comprehensive educational sewing programs geared to the domestic sewing market in the country, and for his wonderful ease as a sewing instructor. Intimidated? Don't be! Here's one of his students testimonials (the content of which he's been instructed NOT to edit...): "Russell is charismatic, funny, articulate, playful, a babe (I'm just sayin'), irreverent and underneath all that personality: extremely talented, skilled, detail oriented, confident and a marvelous teacher." ">"Russell has great personal style - which makes student's want to absorb what he knows. He makes even the challenging parts of techniques that average students don't have a chance at mastering seem doable. He's clever and witty and possesses an obvious joy sharing what he does so well. I would say the most interesting thing (other than his obvious skill) which might distinguish Russell from another "brand" is his very lively intellect - AND a respect for his students that allows him to reach them using his charisma AND his wit to give everyone - even the genetically sewing-challenged - encouragement and a window into how rewarding the sewing arts are. He doesn't dumb down his lessons, even for beginners. He teaches even the most remedial skills with patience and care." EVERYONE loves reading his musings, his writing is extremely entertaining and content-filled ...and it's all peppered liberally with a playfulness and charisma that makes him not only someone to learn from, but also someone you just want to spend time with."

  Link: Russell Scott Conte

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  Sharon McCauley

  Sharon McCauley is a fiber artist who enjoys many type of hand and machine work. She has been crocheting since she was ten, and teaching crocheting since she was eleven. She enjoys sharing her techniques and love of crocheting with others.

  Link: Sharon McCauley

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  Barbara Rain

  Barbara Rain has been a public school educator since 1984. She taught English and English as a Second Language at middle school and high school for 18 years. She went on to run a high school fashion program in downtown Los Angeles for six years, where she taught design and garment construction, coordinated a fashion internship program, and produced the annual senior fashion shows. Barbara is currently teaching Apparel Construction at Santa Monica College. She is also the Costume Designer and Coordinator for SMC’s Synapse Dance Theater. Barbara first joined the staff at the Sewing Arts Center in the summer of 2011, where she provides private instruction and teaches classes in advanced garment construction, pattern drafting, draping, and couture cloning.

  Link: Barbara Rain

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  Renée Sacks-Day

  I love to sew! and have great joy in teaching the craft. I have been sewing since I was 7 years old, taught by my Grandmother. As a graduate of FIDM, I worked in the garment industry as a Patternmaker and Jr. dress designer. Looking for a little more excitement I was drawn to the Motion Picture Industry into the world of Costume Design. For 14 years I worked on many films, tv shows and commercials as Costume Designer, Supervisor and Stylist. Five years ago I discovered a new creative passion, jewelry design. My hands are kept busy working with recycled silver and gemstones, creating one of a kind pieces. I look forward to teaching you all different arts of the hands, and the joy of mixing and matching fabrics, fibers, and color.

  Link: Renée Sacks-Day

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  Ivy Vining

  Ivy Vining has been sewing her own clothing since the age of four. She started off draping herself in elaborate baby blanket creations, and was handed a needle and thread when it was obvious that a few safety pins just wouldn't cut it. Her grandmother and great-grandmother were both costume designers, and at around age five, she inherited her grandmother's sewing machine and stash of fabrics. From then on, there was no stopping her. Every day after school, Ivy would rush home and hop on the sewing machine, with the nightly goal of always having a new dress to wear to the dinner table. After initially spending the first part of her college career studying architecture and music, Ivy finally realized that fashion was her calling. Ivy graduated from FIDM with a degree in fashion design and went on to spend four years working in the fashion industry as a designer for a mass-market juniors apparel line. Eventually, she started to miss the intimate experience of making clothing with her own hands, and decided to start her own contemporary fashion line where every piece would be 100% handmade. When Ivy's not toiling away at the sewing machine, she can usually be found cooking vegetarian meals, gardening, and creating fancy custom hairstyles and fashions for her toy poodle, Napoléon.

  Link: Ivy Vining

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  Kathy Weaver

  Kathy Weaver is a graduate of Santa Monica College and University of Richmond and a student of Sewing Arts Center. She has a passion for teaching others how to be the best artist one can be. She has taught painting and drawing at Mission:Renaissance Schools and privately since the early 1990s. She has also studied photography. Her artwork and photographs have been exhibited in numerous locations in the Los Angeles area and purchased by Princess Cruises, Lutheran Social Services, Prentice Hall, Sierra Club, LA County Fire Dept. and private collectors in Beverly Hills, New York and Europe. Kathy started sewing at the age of five, has made quilts, home decor items, designed and made garments and is currently learning the art of embroidery at the Sewing Arts Center.

  Link: Kathy Weaver